-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Most of us have become so used to suppressing noise that we do n't think much about what we 're hearing , or about how we listen . Yet our well-being is now being seriously damaged by modern sound . Here are 10 things about sound and health that you may not know :

1 . -RRB- You are a chord . This is obvious from physics , though it 's admittedly somewhat metaphorical to call the combined rhythms and vibrations within a human being a chord , which we usually understand to be an aesthetically pleasant audible collection of tones . But `` the fundamental characteristic of nature is periodic functioning in frequency , or musical pitch , '' according to C.T. Eagle . Matter is vibrating energy ; therefore , we are a collection of vibrations of many kinds , which can be considered a chord .

2 . -RRB- One definition of health may be that that chord is in complete harmony . The World Health Organization defines health as `` a state of complete physical , mental , and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity '' which opens at least three dimensions to the concept . On a philosophical level , Plato , Socrates , Pythagoras and Confucius all wrote at length about the relationship between harmony , music and health -LRB- both social and physical -RRB- . Here 's Socrates : `` Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul , on which they mightily fasten , imparting grace , and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful , or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful . ''

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3 . -RRB- We see one octave ; we hear ten . An octave is a doubling in frequency . The visual spectrum in frequency terms is 400-790 THz , so it 's just under one octave . Humans with great hearing can hear from 20 Hz to 20 KHz , which is ten octaves .

4 . -RRB- We adopt listening positions . Listening positions are a useful set of perspectives that can help people to be more conscious and effective in communication -- because expert listening can be just as powerful as speaking . For example , men typically adopt a reductive listening position , listening for something , often a point or solution .

Women , by contrast , typically adopt an expansive listening position , enjoying the journey , going with the flow . When unconscious , this mismatch causes a lot of arguments .

Other listening positions include judgmental -LRB- or critical -RRB- , active -LRB- or reflective -RRB- , passive -LRB- or meditative -RRB- and so on . Some are well known and widely used ; for example , active listening is trained into many therapists , counselors and educators .

5 . -RRB- Noise harms and even kills . There is now wealth of evidence about the harmful effect of noise , and yet most people still consider noise a local matter , not the major global issue it has become .

According to a 1999 U.S. Census report , Americans named noise as the number one problem in neighborhoods . Of the households surveyed , 11.3 percent stated that street or traffic noise was bothersome , and 4.4 percent said it was so bad that they wanted to move . More Americans are bothered by noise than by crime , odors and other problems listed under `` other bothersome conditions . ''

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The European Union says : `` Around 20 % of the Union 's population or close on 80 million people suffer from noise levels that scientists and health experts consider to be unacceptable , where most people become annoyed , where sleep is disturbed and where adverse health effects are to be feared . An additional 170 million citizens are living in so-called ` grey areas ' where the noise levels are such to cause serious annoyance during the daytime . ''

The World Health Organization says : `` Traffic noise alone is harming the health of almost every third person in the WHO European Region . One in five Europeans is regularly exposed to sound levels at night that could significantly damage health . ''

The WHO is also the source for the startling statistic about noise killing 200,000 people a year . Its findings -LRB- LARES report -RRB- estimate that 3 percent of deaths from ischemic heart disease result from long-term exposure to noise . With 7 million deaths a year globally , that means 210,000 people are dying of noise every year .

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The cost of noise to society is astronomical . The EU again : `` Present economic estimates of the annual damage in the EU due to environmental noise range from EUR 13 billion to 38 billion . Elements that contribute are a reduction of housing prices , medical costs , reduced possibilities of land use and cost of lost labour days . '' -LRB- Future Noise Policy European Commission Green Paper 1996 -RRB- .

Then there is the effect of noise on social behavior . The U.S. report `` Noise and its effects '' -LRB- Administrative Conference of the United States , Alice Suter , 1991 -RRB- says : `` Even moderate noise levels can increase anxiety , decrease the incidence of helping behavior , and increase the risk of hostile behavior in experimental subjects . These effects may , to some extent , help explain the `` dehumanization '' of today 's urban environment . ''

Perhaps Confucius and Socrates have a point .

6 . -RRB- Schizophonia is unhealthy . `` Schizophonia '' describes a state where what you hear and what you see are unrelated . The word was coined by the great Canadian audiologist Murray Schafer and was intended to communicate unhealthiness . Schafer explains : `` I coined the term schizophonia intending it to be a nervous word . Related to schizophrenia , I wanted it to convey the same sense of aberration and drama . ''

My assertion that continual schizophonia is unhealthy is a hypothesis that science could and should test , both at personal and also a social level . You have only to consider the bizarre jollity of train carriages now -- full of lively conversation but none of it with anyone else in the carriage -- to entertain the possibility that this is somehow unnatural . Old-style silence at least had the virtue of being an honest lack of connection with those around us . Now we ignore our neighbors , merrily discussing intimate details of our lives as if the people around us simply do n't exist . Surely this is not a positive social phenomenon .

7 . Compressed music makes you tired . However clever the technology and the psychoacoustic algorithms applied , there are many issues with data compression of music , as discussed in this excellent article by Robert Harley back in 1991 . My assertion that listening to highly compressed music makes people tired and irritable is based on personal and anecdotal experience - again it 's one that I hope will be tested by researchers .

8 . Headphone abuse is creating deaf kids . Over 19 percent of American 12 to 19 years old exhibited some hearing loss in 2005-2006 , an increase of almost 5 percent since 1988-94 -LRB- according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Josef Shargorodsky et al , reported with comments from the researchers here -RRB- . One university study found that 61 percent of freshmen showed hearing loss -LRB- Leeds 2001 -RRB- .

Many audiologists use the rule of thumb that your headphones are too loud if you ca n't hear someone talking loudly to you . For example , Robert Fifer , an associate professor of audiology and speech pathology at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine , says : `` If you can still hear what people are saying around you , you are at a safe level . If the volume is turned so loudly that you can no longer hear conversation around you , or if someone has to shout at you at a distance of about 2 or 3 feet to get your attention , then you are up in the hazardous noise range . ''

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9 . Natural sound and silence are good for you . These assertions seem to be uncontroversial . Perhaps they resonate with everyone 's experience or instinct .

10 . Sound can heal . Both music therapy and sound therapy can be categorized as `` sound healing . '' Music therapy -LRB- the use of music to improve health -RRB- is a well-established form of treatment in the context of mainstream medicine for many conditions , including dementia and autism .

Less mainstream , though intellectually no more difficult to accept , is sound therapy : the use of tones or sounds to improve health through entrainment -LRB- affecting one oscillator with a stronger one -RRB- . This is long-established : shamanic and community chant and the use of various resonators like bells and gongs , date back thousands of years and are still in use in many cultures around the world .

Just because something is pre-Enlightenment and not done in hospitals does n't mean that it 's new-age BS . Doubtless there are charlatans offering snake oil -LRB- as in many fields -RRB- , but I suspect there is also much to learn , and just as herbal medicine gave rise to many of the drugs we use today , I suspect there are rich resources and fascinating insights to be gleaned when science starts to unpack the traditions of sound healing .

I hope these thoughts make a contribution to raising awareness of sound and its effects on health . I welcome your reaction , and I will check this forum and respond .

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Treasure .

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Julian Treasure : Sounds we hear have an important effect on our lives and health

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Noise can cause physical harm and sound can heal , he says

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He says headphone abuse is creating deaf kids

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More research needed to fully understand how what we hear affects our health , he says